Lieutenant-Colonel Harold Marcus Ervine-Andrews, VC was a British Army officer and an Irish recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry that can be awarded to British and the Commonwealth forces, for his actions during the Second World War.
12 Facts About Marcus Ervine-Andrews
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Marcus Ervine-Andrews was born in Keadue, County Cavan, Ireland, on 29 July 1911, the son of a bank manager.
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Marcus Ervine-Andrews was educated by the Jesuits at Stonyhurst College, Lancashire, one of seven recipients of the VC who were educated at Stonyhurst.
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Marcus Ervine-Andrews was 28 years old, and a captain in the 1st Battalion, East Lancashire Regiment, in the latter stages of the Battle of Dunkirk, when the following deed took place for which he was awarded the VC.
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Captain Marcus Ervine-Andrews took over about a thousand yards of the defences in front of Dunkirk, his line extending along the Canal de Bergues, and the enemy attacked at dawn.
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Captain Marcus Ervine-Andrews personally accounted for seventeen of the enemy with his rifle, and for many more with a Bren gun.
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Captain Marcus Ervine-Andrews then collected the remaining eight men of his company from this forward position, and, when almost completely surrounded, led them back to the cover afforded by the company in the rear, swimming or wading up to the chin in water for over a mile; having brought all that remained of his company safely back, he took up position.
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Marcus Ervine-Andrews attempted to return home to his native County Cavan after the war, but was driven out by local members of the IRA and later settled in Cornwall.
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Marcus Ervine-Andrews died in 1975, thus permitting him to remarry, in 1981, to Margaret Gregory.
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Marcus Ervine-Andrews had two children with his first wife, a girl born in 1941 and a boy in 1943.
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The last surviving Irishman to be awarded the VC for service during the Second World War, Marcus Ervine-Andrews died in his home at Gorran, Cornwall on 30 March 1995, at the age of 83.
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Marcus Ervine-Andrews bequeathed his VC medal to the Lancashire Infantry Museum, but at his request it is on display at Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery.